Trump says NRA is 'under siege' after New York opens investigation

In a series of tweets Monday morning, Donald Trump implored the National Rifle Association (NRA) to put its house in order. The gun rights group is publicly wrestling with internal strife and a criminal investigation.

Related: Oliver North forced out as NRA president amid bitter power struggle

The “very important organization”, the president said, “must get its act together quickly, stop the internal fighting [and] get back to GREATNESS – FAST”.

In reference to an investigation into possible financial improprieties, Trump said the NRA was “under siege” by the Democratic governor and attorney general of New York, who he accused of “illegally using the state’s legal apparatus to take down and destroy” the conservative gun rights juggernaut.

At the NRA convention in Indianapolis, which Trump addressed last week, leaders met on Monday for an emergency closed-doors meeting. Details were slow to emerge but during a break one NRA official called the proceedings “crazy”, according to the Free Beacon staff writer Stephen Gutowski, an NRA member.

Over the weekend a bitter power struggle became public, as its executive vice-president, Wayne LaPierre, and president, Oliver North, sent letters to the board of NRA directors, each accusing the other of financial and ethical transgressions. LaPierre, the long-serving public face of the group, seemed to have won. North announced his resignation early on Saturday.

But fractures clearly remain. On Monday, one NRA member and former employee accused LaPierre of working to enrich himself and his associates while leaving others to work two or more jobs in order to make ends meet.

“The motive of the NRA shifted from fighting for freedom to fighting for money,” wrote Andrew Lander, a former training coordinator, in a letter to the group’s board. “I request that you remove highly overpaid executives, particularly NRA’s executive vice-president Mr Wayne LaPierre.”

LaPierre did not immediately comment.

In New York on Saturday, the attorney general, Letitia James, opened an investigation into the NRA’s not-for-profit status.

The investigation centers on executive compensation, large monetary transfers and the awarding process for contracts, all issues which could jeopardize the NRA’s not-for-profit charter, which is founded in New York. It follows reporting by the New Yorker and the Trace this month about the NRA and public relations firm Ackerman McQueen, which has helped define NRA strategy for decades.

Depending on her findings, James could force the NRA to return improperly obtained funds, remove its board and even dissolve. That happened after the previous attorney general Barbara Underwood investigated Trump’s not-for-profit foundation in 2018.

NRA lawyer William Brewer said in a statement the group would “fully cooperate”. He added: “The NRA is prepared for this, and has full confidence in its accounting practices and commitment to good governance.”

The situation is made more complicated by the fact that the NRA is embroiled in a lawsuit against Ackerman McQueen, for alleged over-billing. The resulting disclosures could be damaging.

“It has the potential to be really damning, what comes out from that, alongside what’s happening with the New York attorney general,” said Carl Tobias, a professor of law at the University of Richmond, Virginia. “The NRA has reason to be really concerned here.”

The NRA also made unwanted headlines last week with the sentencing to 18 months in jail of Maria Butina, a Russian gun activist who used the group to infiltrate US conservative circles.

Trump’s interest is multi-layered. For one thing, a Venn diagram of his supporters and members of the NRA would nearly form an unbroken circle. Dismissing the New York investigation is also on-brand for Trump, who frequently attacks investigations into his own conduct or groups close to him.

The NRA was instrumental in supporting Trump in 2016, officially spending a record $55m – and probably much more – on the election cycle. It mobilized its vast network of chapters into an ad-hoc political infrastructure, something for which Trump was notoriously underprepared. Sustained instability in the organization could mean fewer resources for Trump’s re-election push.

On Monday, Trump accused New York and its governor, Andrew Cuomo, of “oppression” and advised the NRA to leave “and fight from the outside of this very difficult to deal with (unfair) State!”

Cuomo replied by criticizing inaction around mass shootings and adding: “Unlike you, President Trump, New York is not afraid to stand up to the NRA. I will continue to fight for the children of this state.”

In a nod to gun advocates’ favorite response to mass shootings, Cuomo added: “As for the NRA, we’ll remember them in our thoughts and prayers.”